Fatherly Instincts
by poetanddidntknowit34
Summary: Barty Crouch Sr. had his son under lock and key. Or so he thinks...


"Harry!" Barty Crouch Sr. walked up to the young Hogwarts champion with his best smile plastered to his face, "Splendid job!" The boy with black hair and a legendary scar smiled his thanks and let Barty lead him away from his friends, "I wish I'd taken more time to talk to you before," Barty said as they walked, "But I've already heard so much about you. Spectacular story. Sad, of course, though." They stopped walking and Barty looked at the fourteen year-old, "it's hard to lose a family member; you're never quite whole after that." Barty would know; he lost his wife to sickness, and his son to prison, then to madness. Crouch Sr. swallowed the lump in his throat and said, "But, we move on and here we stand."

Barty looked at the teenager before him and couldn't help think of his son. Barty loved Junior so much, but there was only so much he could do for him anymore. By not sending him back to Azkaban, by keeping him alive at home, and by allowing him little pleasures. Little pleasures that he keeps screwing up. If Junior wouldn't stop breaking away and causing trouble, he was going to get caught; and then he'd most certainly go back to Azkaban. Or worse.

Harry's emerald eyes seemed to be looking right into Barty; seeing who he was. A liar, a failed father, and a shell of who he used to be. He wanted to break down right then and there and tell the boy everything; how he'd tried his hardest, but he wasn't a good dad. How he'd tried to get into his son's life, only to be pushed back out. How he broke that son out of prison, and was now keeping him hidden from the world in order to protect him. Protection that was spit upon and cursed at. Tears welled up in Barty's eyes and he opened his mouth to tell Harry everything.

But he was interrupted by Professor Alastor Moody, "Bartemius, I hope you're not trying to recruit young Mr. Potter into an internship at the Ministry. The last kid to go into the Department of Mysteries never came out." Moody's tongue shot out the corner of his mouth.

Barty did a double take and approached Mad Eye with lightening fast speed, getting right up in his face. He hadn't been imagining it, because Moody did it again. Suddenly, Barty became very aware as to how long it'd been since he'd checked on his son in the basement. In fact, he hadn't checked since the beginning of the school year. Barty took off in the direction of the Apparation site, Moody calling after him, "And they call me mad!"

Barty just kept running, fear over-taking him. What if Junior escaped and was now deep within Hogwarts staff? Cozying up to the boy-who-lived? Then everyone would be in great danger. Finally, he reached the point where he could Apparate and he let the suffocating blackness surround him.

When it let up, he found himself standing on the front porch of his home and he burst through the front door, "Good afternoon, master." Winky the House Elf chirped.

"Winky!" Crouch Sr. asked, "Where's Barty?" Winky didn't respond, "Where is my son?" He yelled now.

Winky just hung her head and Barty pushed past her to the door to the basement. He flew down the stairs two at a time and came to a crashing halt when he saw the empty basement. He was gone. Barty dropped to his knees. The whole world was in danger and it was all his fault.

But, he could fix it. All he had to do was go to Dumbledore and tell him; warn him and then Junior would go back to Azkaban, where he'd be safe and couldn't hurt anyone. So he'd tell Dumbledore. That evening.

When night fell, Barty Apparated back onto the grounds of Hogwarts at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, but was greeted by a shocking sight.

"Hello Father," Barty Crouch Jr. was leaning up against a tree, nonchalantly inspecting his wand.

"Barty," Crouch Sr. took a step towards his son and put out a cautious hand, "Please come back home."

"What? So I can be IMPRISONED by you? NO!" Barty was screaming now, closing in on his father with his wand trained, "I'm doing my master proud with the work I'm doing here. And soon he'll rise again, and will be successful in ways no one else can!"

"Junior, please," Barty began, but the light in his son's eyes changed.

It went from hard indifference to a fire of hatred blazing bright behind the deep brown eyes, "I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT!"

Barty's son raised his wand and a green light filled his vision. Then, there was nothing.


End file.
